Perhaps?? They all have the same principle job, yes? Build lather and slap it on yo face? Okay, so....my studies reveal to me there are a few grades of bader. Good, Better, Best/ Silvertip or some variation of the three. However, it is apparent the manufactuer can create the standards of good, better and best. So, company A's best may be company B's better. And company D's good could be company E's best. Silvertip seems to come from a certain area? (the neck)? Then you have winter and summer coats as well. As if all that doesn't make things complex enough you have the length and I guess you'd call it thickness, which all effect your lathering in some way. Okay....all that said. Has anyone here gotten a cheap badger brush from China/ Ebay? I see badger brushes on there for $12.99 shipped. I fear it'd be like my boar I had that game with a gift set. After 3 lathers the knot fell slap out. Was in with a hot glue gun or something. Would the Chinese badger brushes shed considerably I wonder? While $12.99 isn't a lot to spend, it is about a third of the price of a well known brand for a decent badger (good, possibly best). And it will surely get me a well built boar. I just rambled allllll of that to ask if anyone has one of the Chinese badger brushes found on ebay.
I bought the Chinese brush from eBay. The brush was advertised as a "silvertip", but one should not expect so much for that price. I would say that it's closer to a pure grey badger, similar to Vulfix's lower end badger brushes. That's not to say it's no good, because I have a Vulfix #404 in pure badger, and it's a nice performer. Bottom line on the Chinese brush? It's cheap and it works. It's not very dense, and the hair is not as fine as the more expensive brushes. It can be a little prickly, and it might stink for the first week or two. But as I said, it works. Mine did not shed much, but YMMV here. I gave mine to a friend when he decided to try wet-shaving.
I had the same experience on the bay. I paid $13 and it has only shed about 3 hairs that I think werel loose in the knot to start as they were very short. This has been months now. It holds water well,lathers great and just out performs the badgers I have. I see no reason to pay more for a brush.
I'd be careful about buying a chinese brush off the 'bay. It might be okay and it might work all right- or it might be treated with who knows what (my main concern) and be composed of "badger" hair harvested from who knows what. Chinese quality control doesn't have a good reputation these days. I'd stay away from cheap chinese shaving brushes because it seems to me like someone's doing an end-run around import regulations and/or the various quality tests.
There is a difference I know how a lot shavers look to one product at a great price to work adequate. You can buy a pure badger brush from Amazon, the Tweezermans for like 11 dollars, buy couple more items to total 25 and you have free shipping. But some people forget that high quality brushes can last I have read and heard around 10+ years if properly taken care of. The boar hair are the cheapest of the lot and can be pretty rough on your face. Every company is different in grading. I would recommend against buying cheap brushes on ebay because of the risk of it falling apart in no time. If you spend 12 bucks every few months for new brush, it will cost you in the long run. But you don't have to buy an ultimate luxurious badger with pexi glass handle. My standard brush and also my travel brush is Ems' Place Grey Badger which works great all around. The performance of my Grey Badger outperformed my pure badger and definitely a boar hair brush considerably. Besides, there is no quality Chinese badger brush company I know of. One Vietnamese company is highly rated here. I recommend mid level Edwin Jagger, Rooney, Simpson(make sure its made after Vulfix took over), Em's Place, Vulfix. There are other high quality brands to try also I haven't mentioned.
This is a popular misconception; boar takes a few shaves to start breaking in, after having broken in, it's actually easier on the face than most badger. But even right out of the box, it's not rough on the face, save for some $5 clipped boar, but not ANY brush made by Omega, Vulfix, Semogue, and others. Even the $5 Delong boar from China is exceedingly soft.
To the OP I'd say you're basically right: a brush is a brush. Provided that you don't buy one whose knot's so poorly glued it sheds. Don't get a VHD boar, don't get a Marvis. I'd say go for a fairly small-sized pure badger like the C&E BBB or an inexpensive boar by Omega or Semogue. I say small because it's all you need, it won't overwhelm your face and big brushes hog lather. My Omega 10077 is my favorite brush. About 10 dollars online - I got mine for about a buck when I was in Dubai. II. IMO: No need for a big brush. No need for badger hairs higher than pure.
No problemo--I'll be home in the late afternoon. Call around 7:30 PM, Habibi. I can send you a Gorey's, so you'll see what a great job it does.
I have no ADs, and no desire to get anything other than a good quality shave. I tried the usual progression of brushes - VDH boar - absolute crap, couldn't make lather to save my life Tweezerman - loved it, but the knot fell out and needed to be reglued Random boar somone PIF'd me - OK, but I didn't have the patience to let it break in C+E Pure - this is my one and only now. There was a definite increase in feel and performance with each brush I tried. I'm sure that there would be commensurate increases if I upgraded again, but I get perfectly acceptable performance from my brush now, and I don't see the need to spend any more money at this point.
I was a dedicated badger user for years. I still do use them & like them. But, if i knew then what i know now i would have gone with boar brushes. They are EXCELLENT value for your hard earned $. But, as Zach said, you have to take the time to break them in. I have a Semogue 1305 that is broken in & man it now makes lather likes its possesed. I also agree with Kaveh regarding the size of a brush. 22 - 25mm is the right range IMHO
So many places and videos swear up and down about badger, big badger brushes. Is this like owning a Huge expensive truck? Just making up for size lacking in other places? I nearly went badger till i read these posts. Now i'm a little stuck. I'm brand new at this, what is the hulabaloo with badger is it just more trendy to own a badger, more decadent? I realize preference is basically everything but i'd like to know in the end which brush is softer and which builds a better lather, broken in boar or badger? There has to be a reason that badger is so much more expensive.
There is no simple answer to these questions. But there are different prices of shaving brush just as there are different prices of car, fishing rod, golf clubs. I don't think there is a trend thing happening. If there is, it is in favour of the boar. Badger brush's are great brush's, they come in three different grades & all kinds of sizes. Oh and prices from $ 10.00 to $ 600.00 Boar brush's are great brush's, they come in only one grade( as far as I am aware ) Im sure that hair from different regions may be different.... They come in all kinds of sizes & the price range is $ cheap to $ 50.00. Certain badger brush's are more expensive that others due to the grade of the hair ( badgers are not the most common critter out there ) As far as softness....I dont think there is a boar brush out there that can match a Simpsons chubby in super for softness ( luxuriousness ) & the shear volume of hair. Im sure that Plisson & Rooney et al badger brush's are just as awsome. But guess what, a decent boar brush, especially after it is broken in, can do what a badger can. One thing you could do is start off with a Semogue boar & a Semogue badger. For less than $60.00 you will have two excellent brush's & from there make up your own mind.
There are a lot of good and excelent brushes out there, but if you "buy & try" both Semogue you won´t be disappointed and can find out for your self
I think I have a pretty good idea of what I want and can afford now. Thank you for taking the time to teach us new kids a thing or two. I spent several hours looking at these brushes, and have come to a great realization. Whichever I buy now I know I'll be using something different in a year or two maybe in even less time. I guess you can't find a favorite just from pictures and names and grades that don't mean much to me. Thanks.
no worries man. Another thing to remember is all brushes will work. However, some are better than others. If you are thinking of taking a big leap, I am selling a super badger brush. Fozz
My impression is that there are significant performance increases at every level up to about $100 or so, after that any price increase is more a reflection of intangibles like workmanship, materials and style.
